Goals: The immediate goal is to introduce both mature and emerging knowledge in cybersecurity, software engineering, and computer information systems to CIS/Cybersecurity students at UH in order to educate and train them to become workforce-ready information systems specialists. A long-term goal is also to help continuously improve the Cybersecurity Master program and to help build a Ph.D. program in the College of Technology.
Dr. Zhang taught two classes per semester since Fall 2015. Dr. Zhang have taught four undergraduate courses and two graduate courses. All the courses have been revised and updated to reflect the current state-of-art in the research and industrial communities. Among them, CIS 3355: Integrated Information Systems is a re-developed course with 2/3 new teaching materials for senior undergraduate students, and CIS 6397: Data Science for Security is a new course developed by me that aim at building a Data Analytics Program for graduate studies. This course is tailored to make graduate students better prepared for their Ph.D. studies. It also attracts students who enjoy exposure to the advanced topic. Since the College of Technology has submitted a proposal to establish a Ph.D. program across multiple departments including ILT, this course will help to build the unique and successful Ph.D. program.
As the lead, Dr. Zhang have organized and supervised graduate students’ seminar in collaboration with Dr. Xuqing Wu and Dr. Lian-Chieh Cheng. The seminar was held for every two weeks between September 2016 and May 2017. Graduate students from the ILT presented their research results, gave talks about new topics, and discussed current research progress in the seminar. The purpose of the seminar is to brainstorm new research ideas and give graduate students a chance to practice their academic presentation skills.
In addition to advising Ph.D. and master students, Dr. Zhang have recruited undergraduate students to join active research projects. Zach Haven and Feng Guo are undergraduate students of Computer Science major who worked with me in 2018 and 2017.
Dr. Zhang have participated in eight educational research projects, including one for NSF. The funded effort was in support of the NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Site: Cyber Security research initiative